1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of substantially real time multi-party dialogs between communication devices/participants (e.g., sometimes referred to as Instant Messaging (IM) and/or Quick Messaging (QM). More particularly, this invention deals with method, apparatus and computer program storage media useful for checking the authenticity of proposed future or current participants in a substantially real time multi-party dialog between communication devices/participants.
2. Related Art
Systems which permit substantially real time dialog between plural mobile communication units/participants have already become common. Some of these systems have been referred to as instant messaging (IM) which started out in LAN-line environments but which have now evolved to a wireless environment using mobile communication devices. The number of available mobile communication devices is already very large (e.g., cell phones, smart phones, PDAs, pagers, phone-enabled laptop computers and a range of other devices). To the extent that such earlier systems rely upon communication of numerous housekeeping messages (e.g., status of participants, buddy lists, buddy statuses, etc.), such arrangements can become cumbersome in a wireless environment with relatively limited bandwidths. Accordingly, some more recent developments involving peer-to-peer substantially real time dialogs between multi-parties are being implemented.
Some prior authentication schemes are exemplified by prior art such as: US 2002/0004831 A1 (Woodhill); EP 1,422,960 A1 (Miller); U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,525 (Kanevsky); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,668,876 (Falk). Woodhill may require the response to an authentication inquiry to be sent in full duplicate on two different communication links. However, the authentication query is still transmitted on a single communication link and the recipient maintains control over issuing duplicate responses.